Align strategy with culture

THERE is a well-known saying by Peter Drucker: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Applying this to culture change means that whatever new strategies a leadership team creates will not succeed unless they are aligned with the current culture. How can you expect different results unless you focus consciously on changing the way people behave and interact with each other?

Leadership is recognising how important empowered employees, collaboration and the power of collective action are to generating business results. The ability to achieve internal cohesion on decisions is valued and now becoming the goal for many organisations. This is a shift in thinking and behaviour from "me" to "we". The "we" is the ability to create shared goals with shared values.

Having a common approach to achieving work-life initiatives is the new way of working together. Imagine what this will mean to leaders who only know a command and control style of leadership. It will require the development of a new leadership style - one that is more facilitative with a focus on building consensus and engaging participation. This can be a huge change in what leaders value, the way they behave and how performance is measured.